BCRO LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO SAVE SMALL TOWNS

BERGEN COUNTY REPUBLICANSCALABRESE  HELLER & DUGGAN

Chairman: Bob Yudin

201-880-1646

HACKENSACK --  The Bergen County Republican Organization and its freeholder candidates are organizing an effort to stop the state from forcibly consolidating small towns and to prevent County Executive Dennis McNerney from getting a post on the state legislature’s consolidation committee

“Small town life is in jeopardy in New Jersey thanks to Democrats like McNerney and the Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts,” said BCRO freeholder candidate Chris Calabrese, of Upper Saddle River.

“The Democrats want to turn small towns into large inefficient, wasteful cities that will become patronage pits for putting more people on the public payroll,” he added.

To mount a challenge against the state’s consolidation plan by notifying residents and elected officials in the 35 small towns that McNerney targeted for extinction earlier this year ( See attached letter)

BCRO freeholder candidate Jeff Heller, a former Ramsey Councilman, said the Democrats position that property taxes will be lowered if small towns consolidate is not borne out by the facts.

“Small towns are much more efficient than bigger towns and cities.  Small towns don’t have the big bureaucracies and big payrolls that cities do. The elected officials are much closer to the people and know what’s happening in town,” said Heller, a bank analyst.

Heller noted that most, if not all small towns are already sharing services and equipment with other small towns to hold down costs. “We don’t need the county or the state coming in and telling us how to cut costs; we’ve been doing it for years.”

Heller added that unfunded state mandates and the lack of state aid for small towns are reasons property taxes are rising in small communities. He also said that the two biggest fiscal challenges faced by small towns are the costs of teacher and police salaries.

 “I don’t see the Democrats in Trenton doing anything about the escalating costs of police or teacher salaries, or doing anything to make salary arbitration for public employees fairer for taxpayers,” said Heller. “The Democrats won’t touch those issues because they are afraid to incur the wrath of police and teacher unions. Ultimately, consolidation will give us nothing but bigger, more powerful public employee unions that will demand more of taxpayers.”

The Third BCRO freeholder candidate Paul Duggan said the last thing Bergen County needs is Dennis McNerney on a state consolidation committee. So far McNerney is being blocked by State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-39th District)

“Dennis McNerney is on power grabbing trip. He is trying to expand the size and scope of county government and take over municipal operations in places like Bogota, Emerson and Westwood. He must be stopped,” said Duggan. 

“Anyone living in a small town, regardless of their party affiliation, needs to wake up to what the state is trying to do to their way of life.

### TOWNS TARGETED  FOR CONSOLIDATION   

Allendale Alpine Bogota Carlstadt Closter Cresskill Demarest East Rutherford Edgewater Emerson Englewood Cliffs Harrington Park Haworth Ho-Ho-Kus Leonia Maywood Midland Park Montvale Moonachie Northvale Norwood Old Tappan Oradell Park Ridge River Vale Rochelle Park Rockleigh Saddle River S. Hackensack Teterboro Upper Saddle